An Idea: Best Family Location Vacation

“Location” is not always best

I know we are nearing the end of summer. So, file this for future reference. Use the next year to plan your own family location vacation.

Many families want to show their kids ‘how much’ they love them. So, they plan extravagant vacations. Parents pour money and time into planning the perfect vacation.They tell their friends all about the vacation they had with their kids. Truth be told, most kids would rather have vacations closer to home and the full attention of their parents. To kids, that is more enjoyable than travelling hundreds of miles to “have such a great time.”  Think about it: if no one ever knew what you did on your vacation and you had no one to compare with, would you really sink all that money into your vacations?!

For small children, the closer you stay to home, the better. In fact, home is a great place to have a vacation. This especially can work if parents don’t have local responsibilities. Dave is a licensed electrician and plumber and if he’s in the area, it’s difficult for him to turn down a service call. So, vacation time for our family went better if we were away. If we were out of town, he could tell his customers he was out of town and when he’d be back. If he was at home, it was too easy to just slip over and fix that plumbing problem that was larger than it seemed. Even so, this type of vacation is my dream vacation.

There are so many places of interest in our own communities. Because they’re so close, we tend to think “I’ll do that sometime”. The problem is, sometime never comes. For several years, we lived twenty minutes from Monticello. Guess who never took the time to visit Monticello until after we moved away! (Dave). I visited with my sisters, but he never got there because there was always “tomorrow”.

A Financially feasible location vacation

When you vacation from home, you save lodging, travel, and food expenditures. Sure, you’ll want to eat out and need to purchase tickets to get into events – but you’ll do that no matter where you go. You’ll also put some miles (with gas) on your vehicle going to places near home, but it’s zilch compared to the travel you’d normally do. The fact remains that a vacation from home eases financial cost, saves hassle of packing and unpacking, and eliminates food preparation before your trip.

For that matter, you can make it a working vacation. Your kids want a swing set put up, a tree-house built, a sandbox moved to the shade? Use morning hours to “work” and then spend the afternoon and evening in play. Just be sure you play more than you work, or your kids won’t consider it a vacation.

How many games do you have in your closet that you’ve never played with your kids?  Let them each choose games they want you to play – then spend an evening (on vacation) playing those games. 

Find places an hour from home so you can make an event of each day. You’ll find your kids enjoy these as much as a trip to Disneyland. Really. Who is the trip to Disneyland really for? The kids – or the parents, who can then tell friends and co-workers what they did on family vacation.

Setting goals and keeping them

What is the purpose of a family vacation? To see how many miles we can put on, how much money we can spend, how extravagant we can be in planning? Or is it to spend time with our kids, to bond with our kids, to instill life principles, and to make memories they will cherish forever?

Forget about what others are doing and what others might think. Choose, instead, to consider the needs and the hearts of your children. Plan your time based on what matters most to those who are dearest to you. Try a location vacation and see what happens!